Are All Processed Foods Unhealthy?

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This article was first published in VeryWell.com. The author wants the consumer to know how dangerous processed foods can be. I'll add a few comments between paragraphs.

By Shereen Lehman, MS 




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Processed foods have a bad reputation and many people think they'll ruin your health. In fact, you've probably heard that it's bad to eat processed foods. It's true that some of these foods deserve that bad rep, but not all of them. In fact, some processed foods are good for you. We will cover all this below. 
The author is right, all processed foods may not necessarily be bad for you and some might even have some nutritional value but many of these manufactured foods have the nutrition stripped out during the processing so if the haven't been fortified with some artificial form of nutrition then they have very little and are just something to fill you up.

What Are Processed Foods?

Processed foods have been altered from their natural state, either for safety reasons or because it makes them easier to store or easier to use.
We usually think of processed foods as being bad. In truth, many of them are, but some types of processed foods are beneficial. 
The most frequent processing methods are canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration, and aseptic processing. It isn't really the method of processing that makes some processed foods so bad - it's the ingredients used in those products. So processed foods made with healthful ingredients are fine for your diet - just avoid those that are high in calories, sugar, fat, and sodium, or that have little nutritional value. 
The problem is that no manufacturer will tell the complete truth on their labels. If you thought the product had no nutritional value, you wouldn't buy it. That food label is a selling tool and as long as they tell some version of the truth they won't get in trouble. Everything doesn't have to be listed on the food label. Additives in small amount don't have to be listed. Manufacturers have convinced the government that these small amounts won't hurt you and because you don't drop dead after you eat the product, they feel like they haven't done anything wrong.

Good Processed Foods

Milk is processed food because it's pasteurized to kill bacteria and homogenized to keep fats from separating. Low- and non-fat milk are good for most people who can digest the lactose (milk sugar). 
Breakfast cereals are processed foods that can be good for you when they're made with 100-percent whole grain and fortified with additional nutrients. 
Unfortunately, many breakfast cereals are made with too much sugar, and they're low in fiber. Read the nutrition label on the package, it will help you decide if the breakfast cereal is good or not.
Frozen foods are processed foods too. The best frozen foods are vegetables and fruits that don't contain any salt, sauce, sugar or syrup.
Freezing preserves most vitamins and minerals and makes the food convenient to store, cook and eat all year round.
Fruit and vegetable juices are beneficial most of the time, but look out for the brands with added sugars or that are high in sodium. Some juices, like certain brands of orange juice, are fortified with calcium, which makes them even better.
Oatmeal, frozen fish, and seafood (not fish stick or breaded varieties), canned salmon and tuna are healthful. Dried fruits, roasted nuts and seeds, and 100-percent whole grain bread are also examples of processed foods that are right for you.
I know that fortified foods like breakfast cereals and orange juice should be a better choice, but I'd feel better about fortified foods if I knew what they added to fortify the product. Eating a food that's fortified with calcium for example is like taking a calcium tablet. If your body isn't absorbing that added calcium than why buy the product. Is there any way of knowing? And those additives are just chemicals and why add more chemicals to your body?  Why do they have to add chemicals to our foods? In this country, we think this is a normal practice but most countries don't allow chemical additives or are much stricter than the U.S.

Bad Processed Foods

Processed foods made with trans fats and large amounts of sodium and sugar aren't good for you. They're low in vitamins and minerals and eating too much of them is bad for your waistline and your health.
Avoid these processed foods, or, at least, eat them sparingly:
  • Canned foods with significant amounts of sodium or fat
  • Pasta meals made with refined white flour instead of whole grains
  • Packaged high-calorie snack foods such as chips and candies
  • Frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners that are high in sodium
  • Packaged cakes and cookies
  • Boxed meal mixes that are high in fat and sodium
  • Sugary breakfast cereals
  • Processed meats
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If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
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